Carnelle is an irrepressible young woman who believes that winning the local beauty contest will restore her soiled past and make her somebody in her small Mississippi town. The family and friends who help her along the way are as much a dysfunctional bunch who tackle life in their own peculiar ways. The conclusion the characters reach is that, even if the real you is not the fulfillment of your hopes, you will be more at peace if you learn to define and accept your own self.